California

Just got back from a meeting in Sacramento. It was with our group of health physicists, or radiation specialist - a very nice group of people. David and I both went, as did my brother and his daughter, my niece, who is 18 and off to college this very month. It was such a great trip (especially when the work part was over!) - we were done on Thursday and had Friday and Saturday to explore San Francisco! I had some serious quality time with my niece (and husband and brother) and thoroughly enjoyed the sights. We hope to bring Smith and Tate back in January, with our biology group. Smith especially would love Alcatraz!

We found Rick's Dessert Diner and WOW and YUM!

Our elevator in Sacramento - wouldn't that be a great band name?

There's always money in the Icee stand

 

The kids had some time with my parents in Hilton Head - they got a week of grandparent LOVE and ATTENTION and ICE CREAM every night. Smith even got to perform onstage with Greg Russell, who performs under the tree in Harbour Town during the summer - and guess what, I saw him when I was a kid! How cool is that? I wish I had a picture from then to compare. Anyway, Smith did Flying Purple People Eater in front of a huge crowd, and LOVED every minute of it. Go Smith.

However, he had soccer camp start his first day back from vacation and he fell asleep on the sofa at 7pm! That's a highly unusual Smith-occurence. They had a ball, and Tate missed me (also highly unusual!), so I still have some job security in that regard.

I missed them a bunch - by Wednesday, it was a week away from them, and while it was nice only being responsible for us, it was weird. David even said, after we get the kids back on Sunday, that he wasn't used to dealing with kids and need!

Next stop is Smith Mountain Lake - we leave next week for that. I think, at 41, I have finally figured out that I am a lake/mountain girl. While I enjoy (and maybe even deeply like) the beach, I really love being at a lake, or Yellowstone, or hiking. We hope to get back to Yellowstone next summer - we are fortunate with our trips and meetings and adventures, for sure.

Summer days

From the garden - sugar pumpkins (minis!) and tomatoes turned into this: 

pumpkin puree (10 cups! Yum!!), tomato sauce (5 jars), pumpkin seeds ready to be roasted. Oddly, I decided this would be best started at 8pm last night, so I was up until 11:30 canning and pureeing. Next up is slicing and syruping the peaches so I can freeze them. We seem to be doing a good job eating them now, but last winter, it sure was tasty putting slices of peaches on our yogurt from our summer picking. 

Here's pictures of peach picking at Marker Miller Farms - a great orchard!

Very tart blackberries!

And I had to add these - Tate and a neighborhood friend helped another neighbor find their dog. After that, the two decided on helping out animals everywhere by making and posting signs around the neighborhood. They cracked me up! Just a general shout out to lost animals, people! And bogs - gotta look out for bogs. (We're still working on lower case "b's" and "d's".)

Work & other complaints

Work has been so....worky lately. We have a big meeting starting next Friday, so I've been consumed. Much to the detriment of my family and my sanity. I have been missing (first and foremost) spending time with my 3 favorite people, having a clean house with clean clothes, having healthy food, and doing things I enjoy like crochet, knitting, reading, walking, and not thinking about work.

Things are starting to get a bit balanced again - the bulk of the work is done. I am coming up for air. It feels good.

I am so appreciative that I have a job, that I can work from home. but. BUT. It's hard. Balance is ever elusive. I think that's my problem no matter what - even at my slowest work times when I was working part time, I found making sure all was in balance was a challenge. And whose balance am I responsible for? Well, everyone's. Dinner on the table, laundry in the drawers, healthy lunch, clean home, not too much tv, good bit of activity - these are MOM balances. And of course they are important to me because my family and their overall well being is important to me. But if I'm going to be honest here, they don't create an overall sense of balance for ME. Balance for ME is having fun and joy with my family (the GOOD stuff, not the work stuff!), having time for myself (reading, knitting), bike riding with the kids, puttering around with recipes that I want to do (not making another dinner that gets eaten quickly or talked about how disgusting it is). The time for all this will come - I see my brother with his daughter about to go to college, and how his life has changed over the years with his responsibilities as a dad. And I'm not wishing this time away, but I would wish for more time for what I want to do. I suppose that's the real balance that I want. 

As my mom often said while I was growing up, I need a wife!


On a lighter note, here are some happy pictures - Tate and friend painting the box the new air conditioner came in, joy on a swing set, and our tomato bounty! I also picked 3 new sugar pumpkins that I will roast later today or tomorrow morning - see puttering above.

Slack

I've been really behind in writing. Here are a few photo highlights. Overall, things have been going well, although very busy. My work gets a double whammy every 4 years (like leap year!) and this year is that year, so it's been extra work-y around here. But we're having fun where and when we can, and life is generally quite good! 


We've checked off some annual summer fun things - blueberry picking at Butler's Orchard, annual soccer party at Lake Anna (thanks to the wonderful co-coach family!), the 4th of July celebration in Leesburg - love love love our small town where we can get lemonade from one friend on the parade route and see another friend a few houses up, and have our kids randomly join the parade, see friends participating in it, etc. Smith finished up his camp that looked and sounded SO COOL - he took videography, podcasting, Lego robotics, and Harry Potter's Latin. We also celebrated Smith's 11th birthday with his friends at Luray Caverns. 


Watching "Downton Abbey," "Portlandia;" reading Jane Austen books but not by her, oddly - "Just Jane" and "Death Comes to Pemberley" which was EXCELLENT. Smith is reading the heck out of his kindle, specifically Riordan and Grisham, and Tate and I just started reading (again) Half Magic. Great series. David is on recumbent bike #2 as recumbent bike #1 left us this morning...still can't help but laugh at him when I see him on those bikes, they look so very ridiculous. Freakshow.


Okay, so that's the cliff notes of the past month or so - here are the pictures!

Sail-a-bration time, c'mon!

Baltimore just had it's 200th "Sailabration" of the War of 1812. Tall ships, fun activities, etc. David just happened to have a meeting in Baltimore from Thursday-Saturday, and the kids and I were in!

Pictures tell more of the story than I can. Weather - gorgeous. Aquarium - awesome. Ships - wow! Blue Angels - thrilling!

And we'll end this with a giant GIANT box of Nerds for David for Father's Day. Mmmmm.

Graduation Happenings

Whole lot of graduating going on! My beautiful niece just finished high school. FINISHED! She is on her way to college in August, and a great future ahead - she is a super talented dancer, and I could not be more proud of her. Such a fun, happy, good human!

We also had 5th grade graduation - Smith is going on to Middle School! Hard to believe! He'll do great there, I am sure. I am very happy for him to go in the sense that I know how ready he is. But it's bittersweet to be sure - this last year is the only year he and Tate will be in school together. They sit together on the bus always (unless Tate prefers to sit with someone else...I tell you that boy is the sweetest child ever), and I think she, especially, will miss him next year. 

Tate finished her last year of not all day school - she'll be a full fledged 1st grader in the fall and will go all day. I am not a big fan of afternoon kindergarten, so that part of it will be nice, but I sure will miss my mornings with Miss Bean.

Keep marching forward - too many fun times ahead to feel too sad about the past. But a reminder to myself to keep these pictures up, and to hit the "record" button on my iPhone more often!!

Birthday Boy

Well, he's more than two hands! He's two hands and a finger (toe?) - Smith is now 11. He asked for (and received) books, books and more books, plus a Kindle and case (thanks grandmom, granddad and great grandmom!), plus a Wii game (thanks grammy!), plus a shirt about Minecraft from his favorite sister. We did Chic Fil A for dinner, then Razzle - Birthday Boy's choice! Notice I didn't remind him that he loves sushi - that boy can put sushi away!

Tate also lost tooth #3 (front!) as she was taking off her sweatshirt before he opened presents - a bit of a tragedy but it all went okay.

So much is happening right now - Smith's 11th birthday, end of school, start of summer plans, Smith's GRADUATION from elementary school (the tears will be flowing like wine tomorrow, I'm sure!), busy workload. Life feels very full - in that crazy way. I'm looking forward to figuring out our summer schedule as it happens and lessening the "full". 

Meanwhile, though, 11! ELEVEN!